The Old Heads
Miss Pearl
Chicago — South Side, and don't you forget it
Signature move: The Boston nobody sees coming until book eight
“Baby, I wasn't bidding on hope. I was bidding on you.”
Miss Pearl will compliment your earrings, ask after your mother, and pour you something cold — and then she will bid seven and mean it. The graciousness is real. So is the seven.
She came up on Chicago’s South Side, where the games ran long after the union meetings let out and a lady who could count thirteen cards was worth more than a good lawyer. The legend — and there are witnesses — is the night at her sister’s house when she ran four Bostons back to back, then stood up, straightened her skirt, and asked who wanted cake.
Pearl doesn’t play often now. She chooses her tables the way she chooses her hats — deliberately, and for the occasion. If she sits down across from you, understand that you have been selected. It’s an honor. It will not feel like one by the third hand.